The Advantages of online advertising to the leisure marine
industry
The demand for a directory for this industry seems to be huge
...a list of contact names and addresses of suppliers and
subcontractors, in three permutations: alphabetical order,
classified order (by product or service), and by brand
(manufacturer's) name stocked.
The trade and the chandleries want to know contact details of
the wholesalers, of the OEMs and of the importers of finished
products.
The boatyards want to know the same, but additionally want
sub-contract suppliers who can supply them with the subcontract
services to make their lives easier.
The marinas want to provide this kind of information to the
boatowner, yacht clubs, yachtsmen and sailors who frequent them.
The wholesalers, OEMS and importers want to know the contact
details and facilities of the marinas...
and so it goes on. Buying or selling, you need CONTACT NAMES.
Imagine therefore the opportunities for advertising. Then double
or even triple this when you put your directory in its entirety
(fully searchable) onto the web. The world wide web has now
given publishers like us an opportunity, which we have seized.
In much of the media, advertising sales are depressed...
marketing executives are accountable, and wish to measure
results to justify their own existence. You cannot do this
easily with tv, radio or print media, spending with all of whom,
is a bit like contributing to a bullet for a gun. A printed
directory has always had advantages... a paid circulation
ensuring no wastage, a long shelf life, a requirement for
regular use already established before purchase, etc. However,
it is electronic advertising that is the future... have the
right package and you can monitor all traffic to your website.
Which are the referring websites sending traffic to your website?
In 2004 http://www.boatpartsdatabase.com was established to make
the content of the printed directory available free of charge on
the web, no membership, no subscription. Like all media,
advertising revenue would continue to be the key to a profitable
business model. The sales story was strong... advert in the
book, repeated on the web and hotlinked direct to the
advertiser's own website. There are also no geographical
restrictions on the web, much better for a global industry in an
era where the world is looking increasingly small. The medium
also has equal appeal to trade and private individual alike.
We are perhaps still in a period where the average advertiser's
perception spots far more readily the visual impact of a thickly
bound well-illustrated book, than the potential of a regularly
updated web directory. He can also see that the user (trade or
private individual) would keep it at the "point of need", on a
workshop bench or onboard in a drawer. But times are changing
fast. Onboard web browsing is already a reality.
As editors, we have adapted the directory's content to reflect
the kind of search phrases that are used by millions of people
worldwide daily in the major search engines, google and yahoo,
ensuring that we are on the first two pages of hundreds of
relevant google searches.
We want now to sell you the advertising opportunity of all
time...
you are a chandlery with 8 locations
you sell mail order, you have a shopping basket facility on your
website
you are exclusive distributors and agents for a number of brands
you are dealers and stockists of all the major brands
you can have a full page advert under "chandlers" or "chandlers
online", list every one of your locations under every relevant
brand name and every relevant category and each item will be
HOTLINKED to your own web address and all of that repeated in
print in the book, ALL for a package fee for the year.
you will therefore, for example, have 8 hotlinks, one for each
location, under
Echopilot marine electronics...gebo hatches...ebersp